KPU names 22 nominees for monitoring committee

Arya Abhiseka, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The General Elections Commission (KPU) plans to add more qualified candidates to the 22 already selected to undergo a test of suitability for election supervisory jobs.

"We are of the opinion that more people, who know a lot more about the general election mechanism, should be given a chance to compete in the election for the monitoring committee.

"These people were mainly late in returning their health forms, as required by KPU, due to red tape at the hospital," KPU member Hamid Awaluddin said on Monday.

Many have questioned the quality of people who registered themselves for membership of the supervisory committee, an independent body that will monitor the entire 2004 election, including ballot counting.

KPU selected on Monday 22 from 517 people who had registered for supervisory committee membership. The candidates will be vying for six places, while KPU will appoint two members from the National Police and one from the Attorney General's Office.

Of the 22 qualifiers for the final test, KPU will elect one member from the press, two from the academic community and three from the general public. The public is given until Wednesday to scrutinize them.

The candidates presented essays on the general election and underwent a test of their knowledge of the general election procedure.

Meanwhile, recent reports on unofficial field officers who have been involved in the voter registration process have put the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) on alert to the possibility of delays caused by double entry of data.

"We have received reports that untrained officers have been registering citizens based on family cards, not the current status of residency.

"Double entry will occur from that point onward, because each person will still need to be registered again based on his or her current place of residence, possibly delaying data processing for the entire database," head of the nationwide census and voter registration process at BPS Agus Suherman told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

BPS has ruled that voters will be registered based on their place of residence for the past six months or the place where they plan to remain for the next six months.

Agus had received reports that several field officers hired and trained by BPS had subcontracted voter registration to others, causing confusion within BPS and the public.

Voter registration is scheduled to end on April 30, but BPS has predicted a delay in the process of about one week to two weeks.

BPS is employing about 230,000 officers to register some 130 million eligible voters for the country's upcoming, first-ever direct legislative and presidential elections.

Each worker is due to receive Rp 500 (5 US cents) for each person registered. BPS expects each officer to collect information on 300 families to 400 families, totaling 1,200 people to 1,500 people.

Selected candidates

General public: Adhyaksa Dault, Agus Adbud Djalil, Djasponi, Laode Ida, Rozy Munir, Sebastian Salang, Soewarto.

Academics: Bur Rasuanto, Cecep Effendi, Djainal Abidin, Erni Fatmawati, Fachruddin, Kabul Supriyadhie, Miryanti, Paul Onoiwatun, Topo Santoso, Zainal Abidin.

Press: Didik Supriyanto, Muhammad Jusuf, Refa Riana, Refly Harun, Suryanto.